Drive-in movies used to mirror your personal evolution through life.
When you were a kid, you went to the drive-in with your parents are were relegated to watching the movie from a blanket laid out on the gravel next to the car.
When you were a teen, the drive-in was where you, and as many of your friends that you could pile into the car, all went to drink mass quantities of beer and liquor, with no idea of what movie was playing on the screen.
As a college student, the drive-in is where you went with your special friend, often to steam up the windows, again with no concern as to what movie was actually playing.
As a grown adult, you went to the drive-in, complained endlessly about all the kids laying on blankets, all the drunk teenagers stumbling in front of your car, and would grumble at the sight of the row of cars at the back of the drive-in who’s windows were all steamed up.
What memories!
I remember loving to go the Drive-In. A Drive-In meant a late night out, eating in the car without fear of getting in trouble, and two movies!
When I was in High School in Salem, Oregon….our town had a Drive-In with 4 screens! And it was a newer High Tech Facility that used radio instead of the rusty old speakers that hung on your window. Having 4 screens was great in that you could pay to watch the newest Disney movie….while you were instead all staring at the neighboring screen showing a rated-R movie that you had been assured contained lots of gratuitous nudity…..without fear of being thrown out! Life was good!
You would have thought that the theater owner would have thought to put high fences between the segments of the Drive-In, but nope….there we were….paying for a rated G Family Flick while happily drinking ourselves silly while watching Jason hack to shreds more campers in the latest Friday the 13Th flick on the next screen.
Then, with the age of 24 screen multiplexes, DVD’s, VCR’s, 35 Movie Channels on Cable, Blockbuster, NETFLIX, etc…….Drive-Ins all but died off.
There are very few left in the country.
Here in Texas, there were 388 Drive-Ins in 1958.
Now…..there are only 13 left.
One of those is located about 1 1/2 hrs from where we live. A few years ago, we packed up our son and took him to the Drive-In for the first time in his life. Beforehand, he thought watching two movies from our car was going to “totally suck big time!!” as he put it.
He had the best time. He watched the first flick from the back seat. By the second, he was laying on the roof of the car on a blanket. He thought the Drive-In was the coolest thing since sliced bread. We have since taken him back and he loves the place.
Surprisingly, the place is crowded every time we go. Obviously, many others also miss the fun of going to the Drive-In. Maybe they will make a comeback.
I sure hope so.
Now…if those damn drunk, oversexed teenagers would just quit walking in front of my car every 5 minutes!!!
And get all those screaming little kids back into your cars!!!
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